Odd Things Happen

Chris's accident has appeared on two web sites:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/manchester/6918005.stm

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/s/1012/1012117_climber_dies_on_charity_expedition.html

Interestingly the web site/blog of the expedition says nothing about this incident other than their spirits are somewhat down...?!

This week's been an example of how the world moves on. Last week we were all stunned by the untimely death of Chris and Friday saw the whole office in a shell-shocked state of disbelief.

Monday saw people starting to get to terms with the situation. Somebody openned the book/parcel from Amazon that Chris had ordered before he left. Then Modnay night R, his closest work friend, had the depressing job of tidying up Chris's personal effects. God R looked dreadful Monday night, and he finished the job yesterday.

So now Chris's desk is a neat, souless, work station. His PC is still there and I know in a couple of weeks I'll be given the task of going through his work directories to determine what should be kept and where to put it.

But the world goes on, and out support manager sent an email yesterday asking for recruits to the 24-hour support roster, as we are now one colleague down.

Whilst Chris will live on in the hearts of his friends, and his legacy in terms of code will live on for many years to come, he is gone and won't be coming back. And we, as the human-race, just get on with these things, accept them as they are (because the facts aren't going to change). It's time to get back to work.

If you've read the last post you'll know why the above. I don't like to get too personal in my blog, because to the baggage that can add to, not just me but others as well. However this is different.

I've known Chris for six years, he joined and became an understudy for me on the project I was leading. A couple of years ago I got moved onto a new project and left Chris with the pieces... he bloomed and made it into a real feature our company could be (and is) proud of. And it's clear that the code he put in place was (well lets just say) rather better than some of the stuff I'd put in previously!

Because of our close working relationship we became good work-friends. And most (all) people in the office had a really good relationship with him - he was just a really nice guy.

One of his main passion's in life was rock-climbing - think of the stuff you might have seen on National Geography and I guess you wouldn't be far wrong. But because he was you and very fit, he'd have a go at a lot of things (week-end marathon trecking stuff with a couple of others in our company, triathlons, half marathons...). And because he was still single, he'd save up his holiday for a big action holiday each year: trecking/travelling the US last year, ice climbing the year before...

This year he and a friend joined an experdition to Greenland, to help map out some uncharted mountains... Chris was nervous about this because it was a real serious event (uninhabited island, 3 days before anyone could come and rescue an injured party...) and to make matters worse his friend had to drop out because of work pressures a few weeks before the off.

But Chris still went off and met up (I think) with the group last weekend. And now won't be coming back because of being caught in an avalanche/rock slide where he was hit on the head, and after being made comfortable slipped into a coma and died, pretty much alone, thousands of miles from home...

I know nothing about rock climbing other than what I've seen on TV, and am having real difficulty coming to terms with how this has all happened. I know it's dangerous, but Chris is/was very sensible and had gone off on countless climbing trips before. This was just another, albeit on a somewhat grander scale.

I can't believe that he's gone. At the end of the day, I am just a work colleague. I'm not family, I am not part of his close knit group of friends, nor his social set, but... God, it's just so tragic and unfair.

Everyone who knew him will miss him, there aren't many genuinly nice guys like him around in the world.

Chris, we've all got to die at some point, yours was way too early. I hope that wherever you end up there's some good climbing to be done...

Well I haven't (again) written for a while. That's not because "interesting" stuff hasn't happend, but because I got out of the habit and am (or thought I was) really busy at work. But this week has to be written about, it started crap but it ended... well a whole lot (and I mean a whole lot) crapper, I mean really, really, really crap and then just more crap.

So the week started, lets say on Sunday when I came down with man-flu, except it's not man-flu it's something far worse. So Sunday lunchtime through until Thursday morning I have had the headache from hell (and I don't often get headaches), not found it possible to sleep for more than 20 minutes at a time (I know because I keep getting up and looking at the alarm clock), and feeling dreadfully achie and really dizzy. So I worked through it ('cos I'm a "man") and did nothing really productive this week.

Wednesday was the first (second!) low point of this virus, I was so dizzy that when putting a bowl away in the kitchen I managed to not see the kitchen chair in front of me (well it wasn't in front of me when I started out this exercise) and BANG big lump on forhead which is still glowing and aching now. Thursday was good though, Thursday I felt a whole lot better - not well enough to do anything too physical (a walk to the shops at lunch time drained me) but no headache, not too achie, and no real dizziness.

However whilst this was going on, my girlie looked like Shrek's queen on Monday from school - had a dose of calpol at the child minders and fell asleep on the settee for two hours. And she spent most of Tuesday - Thursday complaining of tummie ache and headaches. So she's got the same as me. Though on Thursday she gets covered in a rash as well! So I tell her that she's off to the doctors on Friday (this) morning when I put her to bed. Then I go and get changed out of my work clothes and, well hey... I'm all bloomin' rashie as well!

So this morning we both go off to the doctors. Yes I know it's a virus that they won't do anying about ("just let it run its course - you're doing all the right things") but with kids you don't take chances do you? So now school's over I dispatch her to the childminder's and head off into town for work (just a couple of hours late).

So I am feeling a touch sorry for myself - relapsing with this virus, but am pretty happy that my girl seems over the worst, and it'll soon be the week end... So the week might just end on a moderate low (oh yes my OH is also thinking of coming down with this...).

I get to the car park, have to wait for Dave to park his car to get into my space (didn't expect to see him arriving at 11:00, but no worries really). And we head on off up the 10 flights (eight for him) to our respective offices. Then he says, "You won't have heard yet will you... Chris has been killed in a climbing accident on Wednesday (I think was the date)..."

Well excuse me, but just how to you get your head around that with just three flights to go? We're not a big company and our development team is (was) 10 people. I always (and shouldn't have) thought of Chris as "young" because he joined in his mid twenties, and came under my mentoring for a good while. He's now thirty - so not "young" and has always been an action man and going off doing things that "comfortable" people like me don't do. He went off on holiday two weeks ago with a group of really experienced climbers (I spent today reading all their bios) and now he's dead... On his desk is a (work?) book from Amazon that arrived a couple of days ago, still sitting in its cardboard posting jacket... and his desk so neatly tidied (as you do before you go away)... and he'd been off on many different "action" holidays, so this would be no different...

Except this morning his Dad rang in to tell us, he'd died...

So all in all a really shit week, and I feel crap on so many levels, not least because until 10:45 this morning I'd been feeling pathetic in my own little world... Shit happens, but this isn't right

In the school bag tonight is a "You've been bad, and owe us school dinner money, pay up or your daughter starves..." letter! It's their fault because they couldn't work out how much it'd cost when I last asked them, honest...

Gosh, haven't written in ages (too much work and stuff going on). So just a quick post to say that my girl's hitting the party scene with her school chums. After no parties since forever, suddenly it's everyone's birthday. Which brings me to the point of this post.

Her first party this season was at one of those kids' ball park places. Not a huge place, but big enough to be staging 2/3 parties at a time (or may be 2 parties and a few non party kids there on spec). Now my girl's 5 and three quarters, so are most of her friends with one or two a bit younger and one or two a bit older (six!).

So it never ceases to amaze me (it didn't last year when we held her party at one of these places) just how many parents just dump their kids and go. Admittedly hanging around drinking overpriced coffee for a couple of hours isn't everybody's idea of fun - but then it's not supposed to be for the adults is it?

I stayed, I always do, but stayed right out of the way and let the girls just have fun. Whereas last year I had to do following around, this time I didn't I just watched from a far. And my girl completely forgot I was there - which is good. So that meant I could just leave... er no I don't think so. I wouldn't leave, especially when the party is in a public place like a ball park, where anybody could come in. I know a lot of the parent's by sight, but not all the school kids, so isn't it incumbent on the parent to look after their kids?

Sharon (mum of girl who's party is was), was over got with telephone numbers of parents who couldn't be bothered staying. But what happens if something goes wrong? Well I can think of three things that could go wrong: child gets upset, child has a bumb (of differing degree of severity) and child goes missing. Now parent in charge of party can deal with the first two, but the third...? I know it's not nice to think about, and it's probably sensationalised in the press, but these things do happen. And I know from last years experience I simply couldn't keep track of 20+ kids of whom I only really know five-or-so.

So how come these other parents just bugger off?! The worst I would do is leave the building and sit in my car for the two hours, I mean two hours isn't long is it? Especially with ipods, mp3 players and a good book. But why when your child is so young do you just leave them.

Case in point in this party, two girls collided (accident) and one ended up with a huge (I mean huge) gray egg on her forehead. Obviously her parents didn't give a monkeys...